The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium zonale, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Fistafire’.
‘Fistafire’ is a product of a planned breeding program which had the objective of creating new zonal geranium cultivars with red flower color, dark-green, zoned foliage, and about medium sized plant habit.
‘Fistafire’ originated from a hybridization made by the inventor, Angelika Utecht, in a controlled breeding program in Hillscheid, Germany, in 1998. The female parent was the patented variety ‘Fishelen’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,727), characterized as having salmon-pink, semi-double flowers, medium green foliage with relatively strong zonation, and medium growth habit. The male parent of ‘Fistafire’ was a tetraploid line of the unpatented commercial variety ‘Stadt Bern’, which was characterized by orange-red, single-type flowers with narrow petals, red peduncles, dark green, zoned foliage and vigorous growth habit.
‘Fistafire’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross by Angelika Utecht in 1999 in a controlled environment in Moncarapacho, Portugal.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘Fistafire’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were taken from the initial selection in the fall of 1999 in a controlled environment in Moncarapacho, Portugal, by, or under the supervision of, Angelika Utecht.
Horticultural examination of plants grown from cuttings of the plant initiated in May of 2000, in Hillscheid, Germany, and continuing thereafter, has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘Fistafire’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.